Working Titles Memoir of an American Hustler

Working Titles: Memoir of an American Hustler is the true story of one man's life told through sixty-six different jobs, stitched together across six decades of labor, hustles, and survival. From mowing lawns in Baltimore as a twelve-year-old to serving cocktails in tuxedo tails at the Belvedere Hotel, from scraping fish guts at Lexington Market to owning a café, from slinging beers as a bartender to hauling gasoline in a fuel tanker, Peter Belz has done it all. Some jobs lasted years, others only a few days, but every one left a mark. This is not a neat career path, and it is not a book about climbing a ladder. It is about falling off scaffolds, patching together bridges from scraps, reinventing yourself over and over just to make rent, and discovering what it really means to survive by any means necessary. Belz's story is raw, unfiltered, sometimes darkly funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and always honest.